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Chapter 39

There was a noise. It sounded like a rat. I could hear the scratching of tiny feet. I sat up and looked around. There was a bright, sort of pinkish light coming through the window. I remembered reading about Mars having two moons. Phobos was my favorite.

There was a large bang at the door. The dresser rattled. Diana shot up.

"He's here," she said.

"Adam! Diana! Open this up!" Frank said.

"Leave us alone, arsehole!" I said.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Frank said. "I know they were important to you. I should have realized that. I'm so sorry."

"I said I would kill you if I saw you, Frank," Diana said. "You need to leave before you make it worse."

There was no more beating. I could hear footsteps walk away.

"He's gone," I said.

"For now," Diana said. "Try to get some more sleep."

I lied back down. I wasn't really tired anymore.

The sound of glass shattering had me on my feet. The window was broken.

"What the hell, Frank!" I shouted.

There was smoke rising into the moonlight in the room. I caught a whiff of it. My throat siezed.

"Gas!" I managed to shout.

I grabbed my throat. I tried to pull in air, but then it burned my nose. My eyes were watering. Diana put a sheet in front of my mouth.

"We need to get out of here," she said after a fit of coughing.

She pulled the dresser out of the way and opened the door. I crawled to the fresh air. Diana rushed out before I got to it. I grabbed the frame and pulled myself out. I barely managed to see the confrontation between Diana and Frank before he hit her in the face with something. She went down hard. Frank looked at me. He was holding a gun.

"You need to go back in," he said. "You still haven't learned yet. I was sure you would have the first time, but maybe a second one will make you realize that it isn't real. This is the real world, Adam. You need to figure that out."

"Yah!" Diana screamed. She thrust something into his leg. It was the knife. He yelled.

"Adam, run!" She said. "Get to the escape pod!"

"But--"

"Go, just go!" She said.

She kicked up at his face. She did some crazy spin and got on her knees. I didn't stay to watch. I ran. I remembered, when looking through the files, where the escape pods were. They were small pods with a few provisions. They were nothing like the huge rockets that NASA built to shoot into space, but they could still break the atmosphere. I scrambled to remember where it was as I kept running. I weaved around buildings, trying to take the most direct route. There was a large elevator that reached up to the edge of space. The pods were there. I could see it through the dome's glass.

I tried to catch my breath when I reached the elevator. I walked inside. It lit up and started going up. The clear tube let me see everything. I couldn't see Diana or Frank, but I could barely see anything else. I wiped away my eyes. The force of the elevator was almost too much for me to stand. When it got close to the top, I felt myself get lighter. The elevator slowed down tremendously. Handles appeared on the platform. I grabbed them. Moments later, the elevator started slowing down. I was floating faster than the elevator. I noticed the straps on the floor and realized I was oriented wrong. It was a good thing they had the handles or I would've hit the ceiling pretty hard.

When it stopped, I pushed off the wall. The weightlessness was mesmerizing, but I was still in full panic. The elevator closed behind me and shot back down to the ground. I pulled myself along the wall. I could see the grid of tubes leading to empty docks. I remembered the dock number. It was V12, which was at the far end. I pulled hard and fast toward the pod. I could see it getting closer and closer. After another minute, I pulled myself inside.

"PLEASE USE RESTRAINTS," the computer said.

I buckled into a seat. It was for V1, but it didn't matter.

"Life signs detected. Beginning launch sequence. Launch sequence commenced. Ship will launch in one minute."

"LIFE SIGNS DETECTED. BEGINNING LAUNCH SEQUENCE. LAUNCH SEQUENCE COMMENCED. SHIP WILL LAUNCH IN ONE MINUTE."

"Wait, no. Stop launch!"

"ONLY AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL CAN DELAY THE LAUNCH SEQUENCE. STATE YOUR NAME AND RANK."

"Adam Ril... Adam Mair! Vanguard!"

"UNAUTHORIZED USER. STATE YOUR NAME AND RANK."

"Grah!" I grunted.

I took off the straps and looked out the door. The elevator just hit the top. A body went flying into the ceiling. I could see Diana's long hair stretch out as she looked around.

"Diana, hurry!" I shouted. "It's on a timer! I can't stop it!"

She started moving toward me. I could see a trail of red behind her. She was badly injured. I saw Frank orient himself and start moving after her. I saw him pull out his gun.

"Look out!"

She looked back and saw him aiming the gun. She pushed herself against the wall. He fired a bullet. I moved out of the way of its path. It hit the door and bounced around. There was no gravity to slow it down, so it went in different directions. I stayed against the door and hoped it wouldn't hit me. It eventually slowed down after a few seconds.

"You'll get us all killed!" Diana shouted at him.

He put his gun away and kept flying forward.

"THIRTY SECONDS."

"Hurry!"

She pushed as hard as she could, but the injury in her arm was making it difficult to get a good grip. I wanted to go out and get her, but I was wobbly on my way in. I would just be in the way. She groaned from the pain, but she tried using her arm anyway. She was farther ahead than Frank, but he was gaining distance faster than her.

"TEN SECONDS."

"Come on. Come on. Come on!"

She made one last final pull, the strongest one she did. She was coming straight for me. She reached out her hand.

"FIVE... FOUR... THREE.."

She was about ten feet away.

"TWO..."

Five.

"ONE..."

The doors closed. She hit the glass. She was on the wrong side.